New transgenic varieties may resurrect cotton

By Anand Parthasarathy

KOCHI, MAY 6. A new pest-resistant strain of cotton, due to be commercialised in a year's time, may just help India regain dominance in the world cotton market that it ceded to China. But the prognosis for the nation which has the world's largest area under cotton cultivation is not too good, unless ``difficult political decisions based on sound technical analysis'' are made.

This seems to be the message of a study of the technological developments in cotton production in India and China carried out at the Delhi-based National Institute of Science Technology and Development Studies (NISTADS).

In an article in the latest (April 25) issue of Current Science, the journal published by the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore, the NISTADS researchers, Mr. Bhagirath Choudhary and Mr. Gaurav Laroia, state that China leads the world in cotton production with a market share of 24.5 per cent. India comes only third with a share of 15.2 per cent, after the U.S. with 16.5 per cent. Yet, China has only 4.56 million hectares under cotton cultivation, while India leads the world with 8.9 million hectares.

The difference is in the yield - India's figure is 321 kg per hectare which is well below the current world average of 584 kg/ha and China's 943 kg/ha. Interestingly, China wrested the global lead in the years since 1962 when its yield was as low as 225 kg/ha by aggressively pursuing better agronomic practices and introducing high-yielding hybrids, with seeds for distribution, grown in humus-rich soil.

In India, cotton yield has been plagued by insects and pests - though over half of all insecticides sold in the country are used in cotton fields. There does not seem to be any lack of agencies - or resources - to improve the yield of cotton. The Department of Biotechnology (DBT), the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) together provided Rs. 34 crores, including Rs. 27 crores from the DBT, towards research in transgenic plants using molecular biology to introduce new disease-resistant genes in plants. But till 1998, when the effort ended, no transgenic cotton variety resulted.

However, the authors quote articles in The Hindu Survey of Indian Industry and The Hindu Business Line to show that transgenic varieties of cotton, known as ``Bt Cotton'' (named for the naturally occurring soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis, which is toxic to cotton pests) have already been developed at the Central Institute of Cotton Research (CICR) at Nagpur. The Current Science article hints at a possible communication gap between these agencies: ``The DBT which has extensive powers in the development of transgenics in India is unaware of any transgenic variety developed at CICR.'' Since then two new projects to develop transgenic cotton have been initiated - one funded by the DBT at Delhi University and the other funded by the National Agricultural Technology Programme (NATP) and coordinated by the ICAR. The authors point out that neither of the new projects seem to be utilising the progress made in the earlier DBT project. Two years ago, the Ministry of Technology launched its own Cotton Technology Mission with a budget including Rs. 40 crores for research and technology.

In spite of being the first country in the world to deploy hybrid cotton - some 90 varieties are currently cultivated - India today, according to the authors, is not using the new DNA-based tools and technologies.

They attribute this to lopsided allocations, a mere 6.5 per cent for research and 75 per cent for transfer of technology, when in fact the technology is not yet available. In contrast, China is investing the equivalent of Rs 4.5 crores annually to develop genetically-modified plants and it allowed transgenic cotton cultivation from 1994. Having developed its own transgenic varieties, China has also allowed the entry of international operators like Monsanto. In India, three private sector firms have made investments in transgenic crops research. The Maharashtra Hybrid Seed Company (Mahyco) in collaboration with Monsanto has been allowed to undertake large-scale field trials of a ``Bt cotton'' hybrid, under stringent conditions. The authors say, ``It is very likely that transgenic cotton would be commercialised in India after the course of one year... four years after China''.

The article concludes that while a ``close and continuous watch on the development of transgenic crop varieties are needed to assess the potential public health benefits and potential risks,'' what is also needed to bootstrap India once again into the top of the cotton table is ``a strong political will and difficult political decisions... based on sound technical analysis of transgenic varieties.''

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